1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a vessel powered by an inexhaustible energy source, more particularly to a wave powered vessel.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the gradual depletion of oil resources and humankind""s mounting demands for energy, development of alternative fuels is becoming more and more important. It is known in the art to use regenerative energy sources, such as solar energy, wind energy, and ocean tides, to produce electric power. However, devices using these regenerative energy sources have various setbacks. For instance, solar energy conversion is not efficient, and requires the use of a large number of thermal collectors, which occupy a large amount of space. The use of wind power to generate electricity is limited to windy regions. Electricity generation utilizing ocean tides is also limited to coastal regions having tides of sufficient range.
The object of the present invention is to provide a wave powered vessel which permits rotation of a propeller to propel the vessel forward by wave motion.
According to this invention, the wave powered vessel includes a hull body extending in a longitudinal direction, a propeller mounted to be rotatable relative to the hull body, and adapted to be submerged in a body of water so as to propel the hull body forward, and a driven shaft mounted to drive the propeller to rotate.
A drive transmission shaft is disposed in and is rotatable relative to the hull body about a rotation axis, is adapted to be spaced apart from the water level in an upright direction, and extends in the longitudinal direction to couple with the driven shaft so as to drive the propeller to rotate. A suspending member is mounted relative to the hull body, and extends in the longitudinal direction. A plurality of float members are suspended by and are movable relative to the suspending member in the upright direction, and are disposed to be displaced from one another in the longitudinal direction. Each of the float members includes bottom and top walls opposite to each other in the upright direction, and a force transmitting rod disposed to extend from the top wall uprightly. The force transmitting rod includes a rack segment disposed to be moved upwards and downwards with the force transmitting rod when a respective one of the float members is moved upwards and downwards respectively by rising and falling tides. A plurality of gear trains are mounted on the hull body. Each of the gear trains includes a uni-directional gear unit and a driven wheel. The uni-directional gear unit has a toothed wheel that meshes with the rack segment so as to be rotated clockwise and counterclockwise, and a uni-directional gear wheel coupled relative to the toothed wheel to permit the uni-directional gear wheel to be rotated coaxially with the toothed wheel only when the toothed wheel rotates clockwise. The driven wheel is disposed downstream of the uni-directional gear wheel so as to transmit rotation of the uni-directional gear wheel to drive the drive transmission shaft, thereby driving the propeller to rotate.